I thought I'd share some recent photos taken with a Canon Powershot S120 compact camera, all from my garden here in western France. I built a screw-on extension tube for it that takes any 58mm fitting, which in my case means a Marumi 200 achromat, to which I can add a Raynox 150 when needed. I get the obvious benefits of the 12.1 megapixel 1/1.7" high-sensitivity CMOS sensor, in a form that I can carry in my pockets when broken down. It's a very light, practical rig that is very easy to use. I shoot handheld, though do occasionally use a garden cane for support in some shots, particularly at head height. I also use two LED torches as constant lighting, fixed to a bracket that screws to the tripod mount. My 'macro' rig delivers enough IQ for what I want the photos for - social media, friends, family and desktop pictures. I hope you like the photos, and I welcome any critique, advice or suggestions to improve them.

Very effective, and nice DOF. Looks like a great setup. I tried something similar with the LED lights, but could never get enough light for a reasonable DOF._________________www.scientificillustration.net

Very effective, and nice DOF. Looks like a great setup. I tried something similar with the LED lights, but could never get enough light for a reasonable DOF.

What sort of lights did you try? I find the diffusers are critical to success. I use a mix, as you can see - one LED is a Nichia 219, the other a Cree XM L2. I find the two make a great toned light when combined....and each torch has three levels too...

Can you give me some details (dimensions) about the "screw-on extension tube" please and how it secures to the camera body?

Hi John,

I started by seeing if the concept worked first, obviously, before construction commenced. I then fitted a 58-55 step-down ring to the camera, with the threads outer-most, with some Sugru. This is a mouldable putty which can be removed, but sets hard enough to be a solid join. This action effectively rendered the camera's control ring inoperable, but I (a) never used it, and (b) find the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages with the way I shoot.

The second step was to find something suitable to use as the tube, and I settled on a plastic water beaker, cut at the bottom to fit a 52-55 step-up ring. This attaches to the camera with a 55-58 step-up ring. It sounds convoluted, but works just fine in practice.

The tube obviously had to be long enough to clear the end of the camera's lens when extended, at which point I cut it with a hacksaw and sanded it flat and level. The Marumi then had to fit this, which meant a 58mm thread had to be involved. In this case it meant a 68-58 step-down ring next to the Marumi, which screws into a 58-62 step-up ring on the sanded rim of the plastic beaker. All of this was easy to implement with the purchase of a box of assorted Concept adapters from Amazon for $13 or so. The two rings that fitted the plastic beaker are glued in place.

With everything screwed into place, there is no vignetting at the far end of the lens, even with a Raynox in place on the outside of the Marumi. You can use both AF and MF, and with the digital zoom in the camera you find you have six focal lengths. I have only used the 150 so far, but hope a 250 in the future will also work well.

If one takes off the Marumi, you'll find you have a either a 58mm or 62mm thread you can play with for polarizers and UV filters. It also makes a fine sun hood, cutting out a lot of flare. With the 58 in place there is some vignetting wide open, and you have to move in a little to remove it, or crop it out in PP.

Most of my photos are given a little DeNoise, and then treated fairly for color and so.

Come back to me if you have more questions ????

Last edited by DrHook on Wed Aug 30, 2017 6:24 am; edited 1 time in total

Am I right in thinking that that camera will do a small number of focus-bracketed images? About 5?

Have you tried that I wonder?

I have indeed tried that. But it's not a viable process for stacking really, if that is what you are thinking If you're just wondering about focusing in general, then a slow sway through the focal plane at AF-C will do the trick. Focus-peaking is a wonderful aid while doing this. It's also just a 3 frame bracket, and only in MF, too.

Can't upload any pictures at all anymore - says the 1024 file size is exceeded every time, no matter how small I make them. Anyone have any ideas how to fix that?

That sounds to me like you're running into the 300 KB file size limit.

If you're over 1024 pixels the forum just resizes the image for you, no error message.

But if the pixel dimensions are OK and the problem is that the file length is over 300 KB, then you get a message about "Filesize exceeds limit." The image will not be automatically resized in this case.

That didn't work for me Rik - I have the pics under file size but still get the same error message. However, I think I have found a way round it Hopefully the two pics I wanted to share will come up below.

[EDIT: yay! That worked!!]

A hoverfly (Eupeodes sp) from the hibiscus hedge

and this is a Common Darter, Sympetrum striolatum, from down in the vegetable patch

I see that you're now embedding from https://farm5.staticflickr.com/ . File sizes are 1024x780 with length 199,557 bytes for the fly, but 1024x716 at 366,539 bytes for the dragonfly. The fly image should have uploaded to photomacrography.net without any problems, but the dragonfly is over the 300 KB filesize limit and would have produced the "exceeds limit" message.